Today's Veterinary Business

AUG 2018

Today’s Veterinary Business provides information and resources designed to help veterinarians and office management improve the financial performance of their practices, allowing them to increase the level of patient care and client service.

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31
August/September 2018 • TODAYSVETERINARYBUSINESS.COM
Organized labor gained a foothold at
two West Coast veterinary hospitals, but
whether its entry is an aberration or the
sign of a groundswell is up for debate.
The union
question
Business
LABOR RELATIONS
As the conversation grew, so
did interest among workers at
other clinics, a development that
attracted the attention of prac-
tice owners near and far. Could
the movement actually foment
change? Are unions inside veteri-
nary hospitals a real possibility?
To be sure, many staff members
have no interest in joining a union.
They are largely content with their
careers, the compensation and their
relationship with management.
"I don't feel a need for a union
at this point," said Jean Wise, RVT, a
veterinary nurse for 30 years, most
recently at Metropolitan Veterinary
Hospital in Copley, Ohio.
"[Metropolitan] is very compet-
itive with other hospitals. We have
set hours … full benefits, 401(k),
[paid] continuing education.
"I would not be interested. If
I'm unhappy, there are other places
I can go."
Uncertain Times for Unions
Labor economist Chris Tilly, Ph.D.,
former director of UCLA's Institute
for Research on Labor and Employ-
ment, said the National Veterinary
Professionals Union is trying to or-
ganize workers during
an era of strong
employer opposition
to unions.
"There has been
an escalation of
resistance, campaigns
to avoid unionization
and, in some cases,
attempts to dislodge
unions," he said. "It's
become more of an
uphill battle. On the
whole, private-sector
employers have been
quite resistant."
The nascent dis-
cussion of unions in
veterinary medicine
comes at a time of declining na-
tional numbers. According to a U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics report,
the overall union membership rate
— the percentage of wage and sal-
ary workers represented by a union
— was 10.7 per-
cent, or 14.8 million
employees, in 2017.
Those numbers pale
in comparison to 34
years earlier, in 1983,
when union members
totaled 17.1 million,
or 20.1 percent.
The government
report also noted
that the median
weekly earnings of
nonunion workers
in 2017 were just
80 percent of those
of union members.
A fact like that is a
union selling point.
Continued from cover
West Coast Victories
While practice owners might shud-
der at the thought of union organiz-
ers showing up at their doors, some
have to address the issue head on.
Take, for example, VCA San Francis-
co Veterinary Specialists, where 56
of 76 eligible employees voted to
form a union. What followed since
the April 2018 balloting is a slow, on-
going process of collective bargain-
ing between VCA, a select group of
employees and their lawyer, and a
representative from the Internation-
al Longshore and Warehouse Union,
with which the staff chose to align.
Doug Drew, president of
U.S. animal hospitals for the Los
Angeles-based VCA chain, said the
company is committed to bar-
gaining in good faith with the San
Francisco staff.
"Our position is that we would
rather have the dialogue directly
with our employees than have
a third party, like a union, which
may have competing interests to
our employees, intermediate that
dialogue," Drew said.
Katy Bradley, a veterinary assis-
tant at VCA San Francisco Veterinary
Specialists, proposed forming a
union when her colleagues talked
about trying to better their employ-
ment terms. Bradley's grandfather
had been a member of the Interna-
tional Longshore and Warehouse
Union, so she called him for advice.
In September 2017, the union
contacted Bradley to see how seri-
ous she and her co-workers were.
If the desire was strong, the union
was prepared to assist.
"We started discussing a union
because we felt we weren't being
heard," Bradley said. "There were
multiple issues going on at the hos-
pital, along with what we felt was a
lack of accountability. The response
from management was always, 'Put
it in an email and we'll see what we
can do.' We felt that a union would
give us a voice."
The April vote formally affirmed
their interest.
Weeks later, staff members at
another hospital, Blue Pearl North
Seattle, voted 14-1 to partner with
the International Longshore and
Warehouse Union.
"There were
multiple issues
going on at the
hospital, along
with what we
felt was a lack of
accountability.
The response from
management was
always, 'Put it in an
email and we'll see
what we can do.'
We felt that a union
would give us
a voice."
— Katy Bradley